DRAGON-FLY. 
3^1 
ing the fields in summer with a profusion of beauty, 
lightly travel sing the air in a thousand directions, 
and exposing the most brilliant colours to the sun. 
The garden, the hedges, the meadows, and the rivu- 
lets, are animated with their sports, and there are but 
few persons brought up in the country who have 
not employed a part of their childhood in the pur- 
suit. 
The other species of this genus are inferior in 
size, but not in beauty, to the great dragon-fly. 
They have one thing which is common to them all; 
the wonderful conformation of the eye, which when 
properly prepared forms one of the most curious 
and pleasing objects for the microscope which can 
possibly be employed. The cornea consists of an 
amazing number of hexagonal lenses : if this part 
be separated from the rest of the eye, placed be- 
tween two pieces of talc, and exposed to a high 
magnifying power, it will appear perfectly transpa- 
rent, and exhibit the lenses of which it consists, in 
a highly satisfactory manner. 
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